Emily Ratajkowski: 'Attention seeking is human nature'

Emily Ratajkowski thinks it’s ridiculous that women are scrutinised more than men for courting attention.

With her striking looks and enviable figure, Emily garnered attention in the fashion world before she made the leap into movies, starring alongside Ben Affleck in 2014's hit movie Gone Girl and 2015 drama We Are Your Friends.

Following struggles to come to terms with her own sexuality, and instances of body shaming, Emily has become a vocal champion of women’s rights and ability to portray their bodies in the way they see fit.

And the 25-year-old insists that it’s wrong for women to be accused of seeking attention more often than men, whether it's for speaking out on political issues, dressing a certain way or even for posting selfies.

“It’s absurd to think that desire for attention doesn’t drive both women and men,” she wrote in an essay posted on Glamour.com. “Why are women scrutinised for it more, then? And if a woman dresses up because she does want attention, male or otherwise, does that make her guilty of something? Or less ‘serious’? Our society doesn’t question men’s motivations for taking their shirt off, or shaving, or talking about politics—nor should it. Wanting attention is genderless. It’s human.”

Emily famously appeared topless in the video for Robin Thicke's controversial hit Blurred Lines, for which she was heavily trolled online by people who wrote her off as “a desperate attention w**re”. But the star sees such criticism as an unfair double standard, whereby men such as Rolling Stones rocker Mick Jagger, 73, can get away without wearing a shirt onstage, but women of a similar generation couldn’t get away with the same.

“Meanwhile, when Madonna, who is 58 and a revolutionary in that same kind of artistic sexuality, wears a sheer dress to the Met Gala, critics call her ‘a hot mess’ who’s ‘desperate,’” Emily fumed. “In any case, they are both performers who undoubtedly like attention. So why does Madonna get flak for it while Jagger is celebrated?”